Still has small 08 conning station platform, 40mm gun tubs have been cut down, 5" mounts no longer have periscopes,40mm gun tub on turret three is the same height all around, 40mm mounts by after superstructurehttp://navsource.org/archives/01/061/016105l.jpg

Last edited by James M on Sun Feb 15, 2015 10:09 pm, edited 16 times in total.

These photos are mostly available online. I'm trying to put them in some order by date and a specific time frame.

I'm missing the specific dates around when she was painted in her Measure 32 scheme but I'm working on it.I don't go by the photo captions. I usually cross reference them to other events of known/established photos like when the Intrepid was hit by a kamikaze or when she was hit off Mili.

If you need any info/details regarding details around a specific time frame let me know.Some of the details aren't shown in photos.

Here are some dates/corrections to movements of USS IOWA ... from USS IOWA War Diary and FDR's War Diary at NARA;

On 7 November 1943, USS IOWA (BB-61) departed her anchorage from berth “Z” in Hampton Roads, VA and sailed to Chesapeake Bay and anchored near Old Plantation Flats Lighthouse.

On 11 November 1943, USS IOWA launched her aircraft and proceeded to the mouth of the Potomac River near Cherry Point, VA and anchored at 1317. Her aircraft returned and were hoisted aboard. At 1605 USS IOWA received USN VIP passengers from USS DAUNTLESS, including Admiral King. At 1610 USS DAUNTLESS cast off from USS IOWA.

On 12 November 1943, four Secret Service Agents boarded USS IOWA from a patrol craft at 0817. At 0851 USS POTOMAC came along the starboard side of USS IOWA. At 0916 THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) came aboard. The Presidential Party accompanying the President included Harry L. Hopkins, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, their staff, and four additional Secret Service Agents. At 0945 USS POTOMAC cast off. At 0951 USS IOWA got underway and exited the Potomac River and headed for Hampton Roads, VA. At 1743 USS IOWA anchored at berth “B”, Hampton Roads, VA and proceeded to refuel and prepare for getting underway.

On 13 November 1943, at 0006 USS IOWA got underway from Hampton Roads heading for Oran, Algeria. USS IOWA met up with her escorts off Hampton Roads and formed Task Force (TF) 27.5. The escorts were destroyers USS COGSWELL (DD-651), USS Wm. D. PORTER (DD-579), and USS YOUNG (DD-580) from DesDiv 100.

On 14 November 1943, during the afternoon the ships in TF 27.5 exercised anti-aircraft (AA) and anti-submarine (ASW) procedures. At 1438 USS Wm. D. PORTER the starboard escort screening destroyer accidentally fired a torpedo at USS IOWA. After being notified at 1458 of the torpedo, USS IOWA at 1500 commenced maneuvering to avoid the torpedo.

On 19 November 1943, at 0246 ELLYSON departed the screen because of a jammed rudder. Being able to repair the jammed rudder ELLYSON returned to the screen 0630. At 1024 TF 27.5 sighted TF 86, USS BROOKLYN (CL-40), USS TRIPPE (DD-403), USS EDISON (DD-439), HMS TROBRIDGE, HMS TEAZER, and HMS TRYIAN. At 1050 USS IOWA joined up with TF 86, separating from DesDiv 10. At 1929 USS IOWA entered the sweep channel through the Strait of Gibraltar.

On 20 November 1943, at 0807 USS IOWA anchored in Mers El Kebir Harbor, Algeria. At 0842 the Presidential Party departed the USS IOWA. At 1038 USS IOWA commenced shifting berth and tied up to the Mers El Kebir Quay at 1106. USS IOWA cast off at 1730 and departed Mers El Kebir Harbor with TF 86 now including HMS SHEFFIELD and headed back to the Strait of Gibraltar.

On 30 November 1943, at 0825 USS IOWA and her escorts departed Bahia, Brazil for Freetown, Sierra Leone.

(I'm not sure that USS IOWA actually stopped at Freetown, but was redirected to Dakar)

On 9 December 1943, at 1053 USS IOWA anchored in the Bay of Goree, Dakar, Senegal. At 2000 the French Destroyer (actually a Minesweeping Sloop) La GAZELLE came alongside USS IOWA. At 2015 FDR boarded USS IOWA. At 2031 La GAZELLE cast off from USS IOWA. At 2100 USS IOWA departed Bay of Goree, Dakar, Senegal for Hampton Roads, VA.

On 16 December 1943, at 1618 USS IOWA anchored in Mouth of Potomac River off Cherry Point, VA. At 1640 USS BOOTH (DE-170) came alongside to starboard and took aboard the Presidential Party baggage and cast off at 1640. At 1720 FDR boarded USS POTOMAC.

I researched the FDR mission to understand which units escorted her on this mission. In all fourteen USN destroyers, three RN destroyers, one USN and one RN cruisers were involved as escorts for FDR’s trip at various time periods.

November 12 19439:51amThe USS Iowa got underway to proceed to Hampton Roads, VA, where she was to fuel ship and be joined by her anti-submarine screening destroyers before departing on the main leg of the journey. Because of her deep draft and the resultant restricted waters of the Chesapeake Bay, she had come to the rendezvous very light in the water.

7:12pmThe tanker USS Housatonic came alongside to starboard to fuel the USS Iowa.

November 13 194312:06amThe USS Iowa, in company with the destroyers USS Cogswell (DD651) (Commander Destroyer Division One Hundred embarked therein), the USS Young (DD580) and the USS William D. Porter (DD579), as Task Group 27.5 with Capt. John L. McCrea as Task Group Commander, departed Hampton Roads, VA for Oran, Algeria. The USS Iowa was piloted out of the Hampton Roads area by Lt. Comdr. L. T. Stallings, US Coast Guard Reserve.

I took digital camera shots of some pages of USS IOWA's War Diary, but not all of them during this period. I also took notes as I went along. My interest was figuring out WHICH USN destroyers (and any cruisers that also did) escorted USS IOWA on this mission and why from what I knew, they were changed out. There were a number of brand-new FLETCHERS involved and I wondered if any went into the MED with USS IOWA, they didn't (veteran BENSON-GLEAVES units were assigned that task). I also, spot checked the War Diaries of several of the destroyers I knew were involved before I looked in USS IOWA's War Diary.

I found out that to make the trip as quick as possible, there was NO oiler assigned to the Task Force and USS IOWA didn't slowdown to refuel the escorts. So the USN would detach the escorts with a new batch of escorts so that they could refuel elsewhere far away from USS IOWA. Plus, there were times when an escort would leave the Task Force and send messages far away from the Task Force before returning to it. The closer they got to Africa Escort Carriers provided air cover from a distance; on 16 November USS BLOCK ISLAND (CVE-21) (she was escorting westbound Convoy GUS-220) and on 17 November, USS SANTE (CVE-29). Security was most important and radio silence from USS IOWA was maintained.

A little correction to your 13 November entry, USS IOWA departed Hampton Roads, but she met up with DesDiv 100 outside of Hampton Roads when they "officially" formed TF 27.5.

(I'm not sure that USS IOWA actually stopped at Freetown, but was redirected to Dakar)

Someone on Reddit posted a photo of their mom's uncle's knife - on the sheath was written the destination of the Iowa's FDR duty, and it includes Freetown: http://imgur.com/QMGLOR8

But we don't know whether those locations were written in real time or after the fact, so it's not the best confirmation for one way or another. The fact that they were written out of order would suggest they were written after the events.

_________________Yo dawg, I heard you like PE, so I put some PE in your PE so you can use PE on your PE.

When I go through photos in 80-G at NARA II I love dead overhead views of almost ANY SHIP and will scan the photo. While at NARA in October, by pure coincident, I came across two overhead photos of IOWA taken at different times early in her career.

One photo shows her on 7 April 1943 and the other one shows her after her yard period at Boston on 27 August 1943. Note that they put the WRONG year date on the Boston Navy Yard photo!!! An interesting study of the changes made to her from an OVERHEAD VIEW POINT.

To preserve all the great information in this thread, I'm going to merge it with the Iowa Class Fans thread at some point.

_________________Martin

"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." John Wayne

On your photo of the Iowa, it shows drain 'scuttles' on the side of her hull. I was not aware that any Iowa class ship had these installed during WWII. I only knew this as a post war feature...

The Tamiya 1/350 USS Missouri kit for instance, has these molded on the hull and I've read more than a few articles that suggest one should remove them for an accurate WWII kit. Maybe Iowa is the only ship of the class that had them at the time? Do you know the time frame of the photo?

After studying the above photo in its enlarged state, I'm leaning towards this - that these were extensions of the overboard discharge els (90 deg. pipe elbows) rather than the type of overboard discharge COVER that was added in the class '80s refit. These fit over the discharge pipe elbow and directed the flow downward. I believe they were welded to the hull itself and consisted of a larger diameter "half-shell" - if there was an actual pipe inside it, I'm not aware of it, but it could very well be present.

Obviously, this is just one more point to the fact that the 4 ships were NOT identical from start to museum ship!